(The following story by Steve Ritea appeared on the Newsday website on May 22.)
NEW YORK — In a sign that people seem to be changing travel routines to beat high gas prices, Long Island Rail Road ridership is up and the number of drivers using bridges and tunnels in the metropolitan area is down, MTA officials said yesterday.
“We clearly think that $4.13 at a pump is impacting customer decisions and that leads them to take the train,” LIRR President Helena Williams said.
The number of commuters who used the LIRR in April was up 10.4 percent over the same month a year ago, according to preliminary figures, deputy marketing chief Yannis Takos said. That follows a .2 percent March increase over the same month in 2007.
Commuters, which the railroad defines as riders who buy weekly or monthly unlimited-use passes, make up about 70 percent of the LIRR’s average daily ridership of 288,000. Overall ridership was up 5.5 percent in April from a year earlier, the preliminary figures showed.
Job-hunter Grace Schiller, 21, of Nassau County, is one of the people looking to avoid shelling out more dollars at the pump.
Schiller, who was waiting yesterday afternoon to see her track posted on the big screen at Penn Station, said she’s chosen to look for a human resources job in the city specifically so that she can use public transit.
“Gas is very expensive,” she said.
Yearly LIRR ridership through April is up 5.4 percent over the same period in 2007.
LIRR finance chief Mark Young said the ridership increases are unusually high considering that a 4 percent fare hike took effect in March. Hikes often drive ridership down for a period before it rebounds, he said.
Railroad officials noted that the ridership figures could be affected somewhat because there was one additional workday in April 2008 and one fewer this March than in March 2007.
The railroad’s on-time performance record and other improvements also likely played a role in higher ridership, LIRR officials said.
Meanwhile, preliminary April numbers from Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bridges and Tunnels, which oversees seven area bridges along with the Queens Midtown and Brooklyn Battery tunnels, show 1.5 percent fewer vehicles used their crossings last month compared with April 2007.
That was a difference of 24.6 million vehicles last month and 24.9 million vehicles in April 2007. Agency head David Moretti said rising gas prices are a possible factor. Bridge and tunnel tolls also increased in March.
Spokesman Steve Coleman cited a similar 1.5 percent fewer vehicles for April on the Port Authority’s four bridges and two tunnels, also citing gas prices.